The Sound of Drums (TV story)
The Sound of Drums 'is the twelfth episode of the third series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Colin Teague and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and John Barrowman as Jack Harkness. Overview To be added Synopsis Narrowly making it back to 2008 with their lives, the Doctor, Martha and Jack are dumbstruck and horrified to discover that in their absence, the Master has gone political and is now Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first deluded acts in power are to arrest Martha's family and to declare the time-travellers as public terrorists, forcing them into hiding. With the entire country out to get them, the Doctor and his companions are forced to lay low and watch the Master front run a massacre of the human race under the guise of first contact with an alien species he identifies as the Toclafane... Plot Narrowly making it back to the 21st Century with their lives after reactivating his vortex manipulator, the Doctor, Jack and Martha wonder what the Master has been able to do in the time since he's arrived. Suddenly, a news story appears of a public screen talking about the results of the latest election, as Harold Saxon is presented to the press as the new Prime Minister. The Doctor looks on horrified that the Master is now the Prime Minister of Great Britain. As he makes his statement to the press, with his new wife, Lucy, behind him, he claims the country is now in need of a 'Doctor'. In 10 Downing Street, the Master is presented with various parliamentary affairs and Martha's sister Tish, whom he'd had promoted introduces herself to him just as he enters the cabinet. As the cabinet room is in session and the politicians start discussing the current affairs of state, the Master turns on them all, deeming them all a group of traitors that only stood with him when they saw votes swinging towards his party, and kills them all with gas. The Doctor, Martha and Jack return to Martha's flat and to research Harold Saxon and find out how long the Master's been at work. In 10 Downing Street, reporter Vivian Rook barges her way in to speak to Lucy and presents her with various facts that Harold Saxon isn’t real and pleads with her to tell her of any doubts she has about him. Suddenly, the Master arrives behind them and reveals her facts are true before he summons four floating metal spheres that slaughter her. The Master comforts a distressed Lucy outside and promises it will all end tomorrow morning. Back in Martha’s flat, she and Jack show the Doctor that Harold Saxon has apparently been around for decades. However, the Doctor tells them he could only have been around for a maximum of 18 months as he locked the controls of the TARDIS when he escaped, meaning he could only travel between the year one-hundred-trillion and now. The Master opens a broadcast to the public to announce his 'contact' with a new species known as the Toclafane; the Doctor, aware that he's addressing them specifically, finds a bomb behind the television and the three flee from of the flat as it's engulfed in a fireball. Martha calls her mother Francine, who insists she comes to the house, with the Master's people monitoring the call. However, when she hands the phone to Martha's father, Clive, he tips her off to their presence and tells her to run, getting himself arrested. With their plan exposed, Francine and Tish are both arrested as well; Martha, the Doctor and Jack pull up as they are taken away but are fired on by the police and are forced to escape. Ditching the car under a bypass, they continue on foot. Martha calls her brother Leo and tells him to hide and not call anybody. The Master intercepts the call and the Doctor takes it from Martha, demanding to know what the Toclafane are. Instead, the Master gloats about his position and taunts him over his deductions of the Doctor's actions at the end of the Time War. Watching him on a nearby camera, he directs him to a window where a news story playing on television brands him, Martha and Jack as dangerous terrorists. He also tells him that he sent Jack's team to the Himalayas so they won't get help from them. With no friends and nowhere to go, the Doctor, Jack and Martha go on the run and hide. Later that evening, the Master is interrupted in his office by one of the Toclafane who asks if their machine is ready and he reiterates that there plan will commence at 8:02 tomorrow morning. Elsewhere, the Doctor, Martha and Jack set up in an abandoned warehouse where the Doctor tells his companions his history with the Master and his origins on Gallifrey. Jack receives a video file that Rook sent to Torchwood Three in the event of her death detailing the Master's mobile phone network the Archangel Network; the Doctor realises that the network was both how the Master hypnotised the public to vote for him and how he hid from him over that time. Turning his, Martha's and Jack's TARDIS keys into perception filters tuned to the Archangel Network, the Doctor and his companions are able to make their way through public undetected. They head to an airstrip where President Winters meets with the Master, furious that the US wasn't informed on the First Contact meeting and declares that he's taking over the address aboard the UNIT air carrier, the Valliant. As the Master offloads Martha's family from their police transport to take them with him, Jack teleports himself, the Doctor and Martha to the Valliant. While aboard, they find the TARDIS in the storage hold; however, to the Doctor's horror upon stepping inside, they find the Master having converted it's interior, "cannibalised" it into a paradox machine. As the address begins on the bridge, the public watch with keen interest as the Toclafane appear and Winters addresses them. The Doctor whispers to Jack that if he gets his key around his neck, the Archangel influence would be cancelled out. The Toclafane refuse conference with Winters and the Master takes to the cameras, informing Winters that he's taking control before having the Toclafane disintegrate him. As the public below are shocked and horrified, the Doctor attempts to attach the key to him, but the Master, having been aware of him the whole time has him restrained. Jack makes an attempt as well but the Master shoots him dead with his laser screwdriver. Keeping the cameras focused on him, the Master tells the Doctor that he'd been setting up a trap for him the entire time; citing Professor Lazarus' genetic manipulation machine, he informs him that he implemented the same technology into his screwdriver and uses it, having obtained the Doctor's biological code from his severed hand that he took when he stole the TARDIS, to forcibly and painfully age the Doctor into a weak and feeble old man. As Martha helps the Doctor up, the time of the Master's plan is met and the Paradox Machine activates, splitting open the sky and releasing billions of Toclafane through the rift. Looking out at them with Lucy at his side, the Master orders them down to the world below to massacre one-tenth of the population. As the slaughter occurs, the screams of terror ring out through the speakers on the Valliant; with no opportunity to do anything, Martha, using Jack's vortex manipulator that he gave her while the Master was aging the Doctor, teleports away. As she lands in a field outside the city, she looks on at the mass murder of the peoples of London and declares that she will return before running the other way. Up above, the Master proclaims victory with his wife at his side, looking down at his "new dominion"; the Doctor stands in between them, looking on in horror and mortification at his failure to stop the Master... Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman * The Master - John Simm * Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh * Tish Jones - Gugu Mbatha-Raw * Clive Jones - Trevor Laird * Leo Jones - Reggie Yates * Lucy Saxon - Alexandra Moen * President - Colin Stinton * Vivien Rook - Nichola McAuliffe * Albert Dumfries - Nicholas Gecks * Herself - Sharon Osbourne * Themselves - McFly * Herself - Ann Widdecombe * BBC Newsreader - Olivia Hill * US Newsreader - Lachele Carl * Chinese Newsreader - Daniel Ming * Sinister Woman - Elize du Toit * Sphere Voices - Zoe Thorne, Gerard Logan, Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The Sound of Drums'' page on '''Doctor Who Website